Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I'll just respond to a couple of points made there. All Australians are equal under the law, whatever language they speak and whatever culture they have. I don't think there'd be anyone here who would disagree with that. I'll point you towards—you've probably read it but not recently—the Hawke government's 1989 statement on multicultural Australia. In my view, it's probably the best articulation and expression we've had since Al Grassby's work in 1973, taken up by the Fraser government in 1978 and then the Hawke government's seminal statement in 1989. I think after that there was Turnbull and then there was the Gillard government, or Gillard then the Turnbull government.

The 1989 statement had a really good definition of multiculturalism. It talked about individual and communal rights to cultural expression. We've always been a multicultural continent. We've had First Nations Australians speak more than 250 languages; 167 of them are still spoken today. British settlement and then the expansion of European settlement changed the face of the continent. It's complex history, but we can have empathy in hearing different perspectives. Then our democratic system of government flowed from that—our institutions that I'm proud of and I think most people here sign up to. But then, of course, there was the miracle of modern Australia, where for 50 years overwhelmingly we've been peaceful. We've been the most successful multicultural country.

I do think, though, that a lot of what you expressed there, Member for New England—put aside some of the fears and anxieties, and we can argue about how policy is applied—has already been the traditional expression of multiculturalism. It's the rights that come from individual and communal cultural expression. That includes speaking your first language when and where you want to. English is our common language, and I'll touch on that in a moment. But the rights have always been within defined limits. It's not just in the law but is, as people say, in values. There have always been defined limits. To the extent that some in our society may have lost focus on that and think that these rights are untrammelled, that's a problem.

We would do well to remember this: the other bit is that coming to Australia also comes with obligations—and the Prime Minister has talked about that extensively in recent times and before then—one of which is that you leave your ancient prejudices and hatreds at the door. My definition of an Australian—it's a working definition and always open to feedback—is 'anyone committed to our country, to our democracy and our institutions and our values'. There are values set in the Home Affairs migration stuff. I don't think they're heavily contested. Add to that the principle of mutual respect for their fellow Australians.

Hate and violence don't stem from diversity; they spread from polarisation and social distance and misinformation. I know from the conversations we've had about many issues that many—I won't say all, but many—of your intentions are good. But I do worry deeply about the utter meltdown that we're seeing with the so-called alternative government, and I refer you to my Sky News interview this morning. I've encouraged some of my opponents to get their act together for the good of the country because, frankly, I think the opening it's provided to the party you've now joined is a disgrace, and it's causing fear and a spike in racism and hostility in my community. I don't believe that the conflation with issues of race and migration is accidental with the so-called Nazis, those who are more extremist. People have every right to be concerned about migration, but the conflation with issues of culture and race then does a lot of active harm to people who I represent. Anyway, there you go—something resembling a genuine exchange.

The Translating and Interpreting Services Bill 2025 does put TIS National on a sound constitutional and legal footing, and that's critical to the functioning of modern Australia. English is—say it clearly and proudly—our official and common language. It is important these days, and increasingly important, to have a good command of English. We want as many people in our country as possible to speak English. You have better opportunities in the labour market, you can better connect and you can better understand what's going on in society and fulfil your human potential in our country. We provide a lot of support for that. For 77 years we've had the Translating and Interpreting Service in our country. We have the Adult Migrant English Program, we have community based classes and we have the state and secondary classes to welcome new kids who don't speak English. That's really important.

But you don't have to have perfect English to be a good Australian. You don't have to speak English to university standard or without an accent—or with whatever accent the previous member seems to think is acceptable; I don't know. You don't have to have perfect English to be a good Australian. The reality also, for some people who come to our country later in life on parent migration or humanitarian pathways or others—or for people with cognitive disabilities in family groups, who we see through the community—is that, try as hard as they might, they're not capable of getting to the standard of English that allows them to function and participate in society. It doesn't make them stupid and it doesn't make them bad Australians; it's just the reality. There are also many people in my community and across the country who have a reasonable command of English, but it's not sufficient for really complicated things—serious health issues, financial issues, insurance, legal proceedings, justice proceedings and so on.

The work that TIS National has done over many years is absolutely critical to the functioning of our society and economy. Although English is our official and common language, we are proudly multilingual. We have over 300 languages regularly spoken in Australia—hundreds in my electorate alone—and the language ability of our people, of our citizens, is a bridge to the world. It's a bridge to human understanding. It's a bridge between families and generations, and it also facilitates trade and economic opportunities. People in Australia can speak pretty much every language in the world, and most of the dialects. There are a few from the Pacific islands and others—and PNG and others—that we've struggled with at times because they're particularly rare, but overwhelmingly the breadth of languages and the multilingualism are enormous national assets. It's something that the government values. It's been part of modern Australia for decades. You know, you couldn't play with your Greek friends on Saturday mornings because they'd be off at Greek school. Now, in my electorate, it's 60 or 70 languages that I've counted that kids are studying on weeknights or weekends, whilst English is also their main language. I was really proud to be part of a government that, at the election, committed another $25 million to the community language schools across Australia.

Language also brings new ideas and concepts into our country, in that translation is only ever an approximation of meaning. There are some things—natural phenomena, feelings, ideas, events, people, emotions, concepts—which only exist in their first language. There are words that, when any professional translator looks at them, will make their head explode because there's no actual word that's equivalent in another language, and they have to try and explain around that. People come to Australia with other languages as their first language. It might be the language they want to speak when they shut their front door at home or speak with their friends—who honestly cares? I've said clearly that a good command of English is really important to participate in society, but we're enriched by this linguistic diversity. It's something we should treasure. I see firsthand, though, the importance of the work day in, day out in my electorate of translators and interpreters. My office in Dandenong literally could not function without the work of professional translators and interpreters and the six, seven or eight languages, depending on who's in on a given day, that my staff speak and use regularly throughout their work. The same is true for our businesses and for our economic sector. Smart insurance companies and smart finance companies are getting this. I made the point before that people can speak perfectly good English, but they think, 'Hang on a minute—I don't want to sign that document without making sure I really understand every word, because there are some really big funny legal words there.' You need a professional translator and interpreter. They might pass an IELTS test to a certain level, but they're still not professional in legal or medico-legal language. Who is, really? It's jargon—hospitals, schools, police, lawyers, emergency services, Centrelink, government agencies—at every level.

Large swathes of the government and the private sector in this multilingual country could simply not function without the work of TIS National and the broader translation and interpreting profession. We've seen in natural disasters, and we saw during COVID, the importance of having language ability that could quickly be used to get messages out to communities. We see it in emergency services and in hospitals. We see it, as I said, in prosecutions, and we see it with some of the most vulnerable people in society. Some of them, as I referred to earlier, are good human beings and good Australians who love this country. But for whatever reason—their family circumstances, their cognitive abilities, their opportunities—they've just never managed to master English. They might have gone—and we see it, sadly—to English classes for years. It reminds me of trying to learn to swim as a kid. Mum took me every Saturday; I still couldn't really swim. There you go.

I want to give a shout-out, though, to a group of informal interpreters who are often overlooked: the kids of refugee families. A very traditional pattern is that the refugee kids come to this country with families that are hungry and that are entrepreneurial. They're more likely to start a business than any other Australian and to have a crack. In the year 2000, six of our country's eight billionaires had come here as refugees. That defies the silly stereotype we hear too often that they all come to get on welfare. It's kind of offensive when you look at the data. But the kids of refugee families grow up very quickly. Almost always, those kids learn English. They get it in primary school, they speak it, they understand society and they understand the systems. But their mothers in particular are often stuck at home with caring responsibilities for some years before they can even get out of the house to get to the English classes. It's just the nature and reality of life. The kids are often put in situations, from a very young age, where they're being asked to interpret in really inappropriate situations, whether it be family violence, medical emergencies or diagnoses, police or other community organisations, or businesses coming to the door. So I give a shout-out to the kids involved, but there are many occasions when those families really should be accessing professional translation and interpreting services.

The bill is a comprehensive legislative framework. It gives TIS National a clear statutory basis. Robodebt was an absolute disgrace of the former government, but the royal commission exposed the malfeasance. The most vulnerable in society were sent fake debt notices by the Commonwealth for money they didn't owe. Robodebt has impacted all areas of government post the royal commission—and sometimes, frankly, in a ministerial role it's a pain because the Public Service has taken a recommendation, and taken it seriously, to review the constitutionality and legality of a whole range of things that the Commonwealth has done for years. This is one of them. They've said: 'You know, when we have another look at this, we're not so sure about the legal basis on which everything's been done, so we're taking it seriously. We're methodically going through all areas of government and making sure that they are on a sound constitutional and legal footing.'

So I commend the Minister for Multicultural Affairs for doing the proper work of government and bringing this legislation forward so that TIS National can continue to operate. It provides services for all three levels of government as well as the private sector and individuals: 24/7 telephone interpreting supporting triple zero emergency services, hospitals, courts and other urgent needs; remote video interpreting; onsite interpreting; document translation services; and so on. Last term, I had ministerial responsibility, and it was really fabulous to go and see firsthand the staff doing the work—their passion and their commitment. Workforce issues we can deal with another day. They've got a bit of an ageing workforce and a workforce structure problem, largely because of how governments have chosen to procure for many decades. The gig economy doesn't work that well with younger people, so we need to have a look at that with the states and territories. But I really commend the work of translators and interpreters right across the country, and I'm pleased that this legislation has been brought to the House.

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